Khaleda jailed unjustly

BNP briefs foreign diplomats

BNP leaders and activists join a sit-in in front of the party’s central office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka on Tuesday demanding release of the party chairperson, Khaleda Zia. — Indrajit Kumar Ghosh

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Tuesday briefed foreign diplomats stationed in Bangladesh that party chairperson Khaleda Zia was jailed for five years unjustly and kept in solitary confinement in an abandoned jail to torture her mentally.BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir along with other leaders briefed the representatives of more than 25 countries at Khaleda’s Gulshan office, said leaders who attended the meeting.A special judge’s court set up at Bakshibazar on February 8 delivered the judgement in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case that also sentenced Khaleda’s eldest son, Tarique Rahman, now acting BNP chairman, and four others for 10 years’ imprisonment.The briefing was held within two weeks of the previous briefing on January 30.After Tuesday’s briefing a top BNP leader told New Age that they told foreign diplomats about latest political situation, next general election and particularly Khaleda’s imprisonment in a ‘politically motivated’ case by a ‘political’ verdict, ‘solitary confinement’ of Khaleda instead of facilities enjoyed by Division-I prisoners.BNP side told the diplomats that the verdict was not lawful, the leader said.Representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, France, Germany, Sweden, China, Japan, Turkey, Pakistan and India, among others, attended the meeting, BNP leaders said.Police obstruction and attack on peaceful programmes of BNP for the release of Khaleda from jail, arrest of the party leaders and activists started days before the delivery of the verdict were also mentioned in the briefing, the leaders said.Copies of written statement were given to the diplomats, they added.As a diplomat mentioned the chief election commissioner’s recent remark that without BNP next general election would not be participatory, the BNP side replied that they did not believe his words, said a senior BNP leader who was present.BNP leaders told the diplomats that the authorities were delaying the supply of the certified copy of the verdict to prolong Khaleda’s stay in jail.BNP leaders Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Moudud Ahmed, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khosru, Asaduzzaman Ripon, Kaysar Kamal and Baby Naznin and Rumeen Farhana, among others, were present.